MUN & Other Istanbul Musings

Greetings from Istanbul! I'm still in Asia right now, but I have been to Europe twice in the last two days. (Remember that part of Istanbul is in Europe & part is in Asia.) This is the weekend of our Model United Nations Conference. We left on Wednesday night on the overnight train. Two students slept the entire time, but most of us woke up every hour or so when the train stopped. The beds were surprisingly comfortable. As you can see the girls brought enough snacks to keep us feed for a week!

The conference started Thursday at 4:30, so we had some time for a trip to the European side of Istanbul. We took the ferry over and rode the tram to Starbucks. Then we hit to Grand Bazaar for some Christmas shopping. I was looking for something in particular, so I brought Huda with me to get a good deal. She is a professional at bargaining. She got a 50 lira purse for 20. It just shows how high they mark the prices up and then she won't budge on the price she thinks it should be. And the seller eventually gives in. She saved me 35 lira.

The kids are doing very well at the conference. We are Kenya. Today they begin debating the resolutions they wrote yesterday. Today is the day I really enjoy watching them committees. Tomorrow the General Assembly will meet to vote on the resolutions. We will head back Sunday night. I've been dubbed "Mama D." I felt like a mom when I was packing, make sure I had medicine, band-aids, all the premission forms, keeping up with the money and passports. We've been having a lot of fun.

I've met some interesting teachers from Turkey and several other countries. There are over 35 schools participating from international schools in around 10 countries. I have learned that my French is horrible. I can't understand a word that is being spoken by several teachers. There have been some interesting conversations as I try to explain about our school without being able to say what many of our parents do for a living. There is a big assumption that because we are a private school, our students are rich. Some are, but most are not wealthy. But being with these other teachers also is a great reminder of how awesome my kids are. Today the teachers were complaining how you never hear a thank you from the students. Last year not only did I get verbal thank yous, but they even made me a card. So I'm okay with the fact that our school and our students are "different".